The prevalence of dyads in social life

• Published in: PloS one 2020-12, Vol.15 (12), p.e0244188-e0244188
• Main Authors: Peperkoorn, Leonard S, Becker, D Vaughn, Balliet, Daniel, Columbus, Simon, Molho, Catherine, Van Lange, Paul A M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Analysis; Animal behavior; Biology and Life Sciences; Breastfeeding & lactation; Computer and Information Sciences; Data capture; Female; Friendship; Game theory; Group size; Group Structure; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hypotheses; Male; Middle Aged; Physical Sciences; Psychology; Reciprocity; Research and Analysis Methods; Sampling; Sex; Social Behavior; Social environment; Social groups; Social Sciences; Socialization
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244188

A salient objective feature of the social environment in which people find themselves is group size. Knowledge of group size is highly relevant to behavioural scientists given that humans spend considerable time in social settings and the number of others influences much of human behaviour. What size of group do people actually look for and encounter in everyday life? Here we report four survey studies and one experience-sampling study (total N = 4,398) which provide evidence for the predominance of the dyad in daily life. Relative to larger group sizes, dyads are most common across a wide range of activities (e.g., conversations, projects, holidays, movies, sports, bars) obtained from three time moments (past activities, present, and future activities), sampling both mixed-sex and same-sex groups, with three different methodological approaches (retrospective reports, real-time data capture, and preference measures) in the United States and the Netherlands. We offer four mechanisms that may help explain this finding: reciprocity, coordination, social exclusion, and reproduction. The present findings advance our understanding of how individuals organize themselves in everyday life.